|  | Proc Files of ALSA Drivers | 
|  | ========================== | 
|  | Takashi Iwai <[email protected]> | 
|  |  | 
|  | General | 
|  | ------- | 
|  |  | 
|  | ALSA has its own proc tree, /proc/asound.  Many useful information are | 
|  | found in this tree.  When you encounter a problem and need debugging, | 
|  | check the files listed in the following sections. | 
|  |  | 
|  | Each card has its subtree cardX, where X is from 0 to 7. The | 
|  | card-specific files are stored in the card* subdirectories. | 
|  |  | 
|  |  | 
|  | Global Information | 
|  | ------------------ | 
|  |  | 
|  | cards | 
|  | Shows the list of currently configured ALSA drivers, | 
|  | index, the id string, short and long descriptions. | 
|  |  | 
|  | version | 
|  | Shows the version string and compile date. | 
|  |  | 
|  | modules | 
|  | Lists the module of each card | 
|  |  | 
|  | devices | 
|  | Lists the ALSA native device mappings. | 
|  |  | 
|  | meminfo | 
|  | Shows the status of allocated pages via ALSA drivers. | 
|  | Appears only when CONFIG_SND_DEBUG=y. | 
|  |  | 
|  | hwdep | 
|  | Lists the currently available hwdep devices in format of | 
|  | <card>-<device>: <name> | 
|  |  | 
|  | pcm | 
|  | Lists the currently available PCM devices in format of | 
|  | <card>-<device>: <id>: <name> : <sub-streams> | 
|  |  | 
|  | timer | 
|  | Lists the currently available timer devices | 
|  |  | 
|  |  | 
|  | oss/devices | 
|  | Lists the OSS device mappings. | 
|  |  | 
|  | oss/sndstat | 
|  | Provides the output compatible with /dev/sndstat. | 
|  | You can symlink this to /dev/sndstat. | 
|  |  | 
|  |  | 
|  | Card Specific Files | 
|  | ------------------- | 
|  |  | 
|  | The card-specific files are found in /proc/asound/card* directories. | 
|  | Some drivers (e.g. cmipci) have their own proc entries for the | 
|  | register dump, etc (e.g. /proc/asound/card*/cmipci shows the register | 
|  | dump).  These files would be really helpful for debugging. | 
|  |  | 
|  | When PCM devices are available on this card, you can see directories | 
|  | like pcm0p or pcm1c.  They hold the PCM information for each PCM | 
|  | stream.  The number after 'pcm' is the PCM device number from 0, and | 
|  | the last 'p' or 'c' means playback or capture direction.  The files in | 
|  | this subtree is described later. | 
|  |  | 
|  | The status of MIDI I/O is found in midi* files.  It shows the device | 
|  | name and the received/transmitted bytes through the MIDI device. | 
|  |  | 
|  | When the card is equipped with AC97 codecs, there are codec97#* | 
|  | subdirectories (described later). | 
|  |  | 
|  | When the OSS mixer emulation is enabled (and the module is loaded), | 
|  | oss_mixer file appears here, too.  This shows the current mapping of | 
|  | OSS mixer elements to the ALSA control elements.  You can change the | 
|  | mapping by writing to this device.  Read OSS-Emulation.txt for | 
|  | details. | 
|  |  | 
|  |  | 
|  | PCM Proc Files | 
|  | -------------- | 
|  |  | 
|  | card*/pcm*/info | 
|  | The general information of this PCM device: card #, device #, | 
|  | substreams, etc. | 
|  |  | 
|  | card*/pcm*/xrun_debug | 
|  | This file appears when CONFIG_SND_DEBUG=y and | 
|  | CONFIG_PCM_XRUN_DEBUG=y. | 
|  | This shows the status of xrun (= buffer overrun/xrun) and | 
|  | invalid PCM position debug/check of ALSA PCM middle layer. | 
|  | It takes an integer value, can be changed by writing to this | 
|  | file, such as | 
|  |  | 
|  | # echo 5 > /proc/asound/card0/pcm0p/xrun_debug | 
|  |  | 
|  | The value consists of the following bit flags: | 
|  | bit 0 = Enable XRUN/jiffies debug messages | 
|  | bit 1 = Show stack trace at XRUN / jiffies check | 
|  | bit 2 = Enable additional jiffies check | 
|  | bit 3 = Log hwptr update at each period interrupt | 
|  | bit 4 = Log hwptr update at each snd_pcm_update_hw_ptr() | 
|  | bit 5 = Show last 10 positions on error | 
|  | bit 6 = Do above only once | 
|  |  | 
|  | When the bit 0 is set, the driver will show the messages to | 
|  | kernel log when an xrun is detected.  The debug message is | 
|  | shown also when the invalid H/W pointer is detected at the | 
|  | update of periods (usually called from the interrupt | 
|  | handler). | 
|  |  | 
|  | When the bit 1 is set, the driver will show the stack trace | 
|  | additionally.  This may help the debugging. | 
|  |  | 
|  | Since 2.6.30, this option can enable the hwptr check using | 
|  | jiffies.  This detects spontaneous invalid pointer callback | 
|  | values, but can be lead to too much corrections for a (mostly | 
|  | buggy) hardware that doesn't give smooth pointer updates. | 
|  | This feature is enabled via the bit 2. | 
|  |  | 
|  | Bits 3 and 4 are for logging the hwptr records.  Note that | 
|  | these will give flood of kernel messages. | 
|  |  | 
|  | When bit 5 is set, the driver logs the last 10 xrun errors and | 
|  | the proc file shows each jiffies, position, period_size, | 
|  | buffer_size, old_hw_ptr, and hw_ptr_base values. | 
|  |  | 
|  | When bit 6 is set, the full xrun log is shown only once. | 
|  |  | 
|  | card*/pcm*/sub*/info | 
|  | The general information of this PCM sub-stream. | 
|  |  | 
|  | card*/pcm*/sub*/status | 
|  | The current status of this PCM sub-stream, elapsed time, | 
|  | H/W position, etc. | 
|  |  | 
|  | card*/pcm*/sub*/hw_params | 
|  | The hardware parameters set for this sub-stream. | 
|  |  | 
|  | card*/pcm*/sub*/sw_params | 
|  | The soft parameters set for this sub-stream. | 
|  |  | 
|  | card*/pcm*/sub*/prealloc | 
|  | The buffer pre-allocation information. | 
|  |  | 
|  |  | 
|  | AC97 Codec Information | 
|  | ---------------------- | 
|  |  | 
|  | card*/codec97#*/ac97#?-? | 
|  | Shows the general information of this AC97 codec chip, such as | 
|  | name, capabilities, set up. | 
|  |  | 
|  | card*/codec97#0/ac97#?-?+regs | 
|  | Shows the AC97 register dump.  Useful for debugging. | 
|  |  | 
|  | When CONFIG_SND_DEBUG is enabled, you can write to this file for | 
|  | changing an AC97 register directly.  Pass two hex numbers. | 
|  | For example, | 
|  |  | 
|  | # echo 02 9f1f > /proc/asound/card0/codec97#0/ac97#0-0+regs | 
|  |  | 
|  |  | 
|  | USB Audio Streams | 
|  | ----------------- | 
|  |  | 
|  | card*/stream* | 
|  | Shows the assignment and the current status of each audio stream | 
|  | of the given card.  This information is very useful for debugging. | 
|  |  | 
|  |  | 
|  | HD-Audio Codecs | 
|  | --------------- | 
|  |  | 
|  | card*/codec#* | 
|  | Shows the general codec information and the attribute of each | 
|  | widget node. | 
|  |  | 
|  | card*/eld#* | 
|  | Available for HDMI or DisplayPort interfaces. | 
|  | Shows ELD(EDID Like Data) info retrieved from the attached HDMI sink, | 
|  | and describes its audio capabilities and configurations. | 
|  |  | 
|  | Some ELD fields may be modified by doing `echo name hex_value > eld#*`. | 
|  | Only do this if you are sure the HDMI sink provided value is wrong. | 
|  | And if that makes your HDMI audio work, please report to us so that we | 
|  | can fix it in future kernel releases. | 
|  |  | 
|  |  | 
|  | Sequencer Information | 
|  | --------------------- | 
|  |  | 
|  | seq/drivers | 
|  | Lists the currently available ALSA sequencer drivers. | 
|  |  | 
|  | seq/clients | 
|  | Shows the list of currently available sequencer clients and | 
|  | ports.  The connection status and the running status are shown | 
|  | in this file, too. | 
|  |  | 
|  | seq/queues | 
|  | Lists the currently allocated/running sequencer queues. | 
|  |  | 
|  | seq/timer | 
|  | Lists the currently allocated/running sequencer timers. | 
|  |  | 
|  | seq/oss | 
|  | Lists the OSS-compatible sequencer stuffs. | 
|  |  | 
|  |  | 
|  | Help For Debugging? | 
|  | ------------------- | 
|  |  | 
|  | When the problem is related with PCM, first try to turn on xrun_debug | 
|  | mode.  This will give you the kernel messages when and where xrun | 
|  | happened. | 
|  |  | 
|  | If it's really a bug, report it with the following information: | 
|  |  | 
|  | - the name of the driver/card, show in /proc/asound/cards | 
|  | - the register dump, if available (e.g. card*/cmipci) | 
|  |  | 
|  | when it's a PCM problem, | 
|  |  | 
|  | - set-up of PCM, shown in hw_parms, sw_params, and status in the PCM | 
|  | sub-stream directory | 
|  |  | 
|  | when it's a mixer problem, | 
|  |  | 
|  | - AC97 proc files, codec97#*/* files | 
|  |  | 
|  | for USB audio/midi, | 
|  |  | 
|  | - output of lsusb -v | 
|  | - stream* files in card directory | 
|  |  | 
|  |  | 
|  | The ALSA bug-tracking system is found at: | 
|  |  | 
|  | https://bugtrack.alsa-project.org/alsa-bug/ |